War Gothic, 1930-1990

Details

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_65E6C70144B1
Type
A part of a book
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
War Gothic, 1930-1990
Title of the book
The Cambridge Companion to the Gothic, Volume III: The Gothic in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Author(s)
Soltysik Monnet Agnieszka
Publisher
Spooner, Catherine and Dale Townshend
Publication state
Published
Issued date
01/11/2021
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Language
english
Abstract
The period from 1930 to 1990 saw an extraordinary development in the use of Gothic and horror to tell narratives about war and combat, mainly for two main purposes: one, to reveal and accentuate the horrific damage caused to bodies by combat, usually in order to denounce and demystify war; and two, to figuratively depict the less visible ways in which combat and war violence effect soldiers and civilians on a psychological level, especially through fear and trauma. A third form of War Gothic involves the dehumanisation of enemies by portraying them as monsters. All three forms are concerned with the ways in which war robs humans of their humanity, though the first two are largely critical of war while the third is basically a form of militaristic jingoism. This chapter focuses on a selection of texts from the first Hollywood zombie film, White Zombie (1932), to Jacob’s Ladder (1990), focusing especially on World War II and their veterans, and the literature and cinema of the Vietnam War (such as Deathdream [1974] and Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods [1994]). It ends with a brief discussion of War Gothic in the film and video game representations of the First Gulf War.
Keywords
War Gothic, Battlefield Gothic, Vietnam War, World War II, zombie movies, veterans, dehumanization, combat violence
Create date
19/01/2022 11:36
Last modification date
19/01/2023 7:53
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